it's our health!

National Social Marketing Centre

It’s our health!Realising the potential of effective social marketing

Independent review, fi ndings and recommendations

Summary

20 Grosvenor GardensLondon SW1W 0DH

Telephone 020 7730 3469Facsimile 020 7730 0191

www.ncc.org.ukwww.nsms.org.uk

June 2006National Social Marketing CentreEmail [email protected] 020 7881 3045ISBN 1 899581 89 8

It’s ou

r health

! Realising the potential of effective social m

arketing

Social marketing

to achieve a‘social good’behavioural goals

systematicapplication

marketingconcepts and

techniques

Social marketing is:“the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques to achieve specifi c behavioural goals, for a social or public good”

Health-related social marketing is: “the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques, to achieve specifi c behavioural goals to improve heath and reduce health inequalities”

French, Blair-Stevens 2006

Further details on social marketing are included in Appendix A and available on our website www.nsms.org.uk

Water UKWorld Cancer Fund Worth MediaYoung Scot, National Grid for Learning Scotland

Government departments DH – Health HMT – Treasury CO – Cabinet Offi ce PMDU – Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit COI – Central Offi ce of Information DCMS – Culture, Media Sport DfID – International Development DfES – Education & skills DfT – Transport DEFRA – Environment, Food & Rural Affairs HO – Home Offi ce DTI – Trade & Industry

International organisations World Health Organization – Diet and Healthy Living StrategyEuropean CommissionEuropean UnionEuroHealthNetBureau Européen des Union de Consommateurs Health Promotion SwitzerlandCurtin University of Technology, Australia Edith Cowan University, Perth, AustraliaCentre of Excellence for Public Sector Marketing, Canada Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, Canada University of Lethbridge, Calgary, CanadaHealth Sponsorship Council, New Zealand Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA Washington University, USA School of Business, Georgetown University, USA Ogilvy Public Relations, USA National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, USA American Medical Informatics Association, USA Social Marketing Services Inc, USA School of Public Health, University of Texas, USA Porter Novelli, USA School of Business, University of Wisconsin, USA Sutton Group, USA National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute, USA Women’s Heart Health Education Initiative, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, USA Population Services International, USA Healthy Weight /Nutrition Program, NC Dept of Health & Human Services, USAPhysician Offi ce Quality Initiatives, Virginia Health Quality Center, USA Developing VCU School of Public Health, USA Florida Prevention Research Center, University of South Florida, USA

Appendix DAbbreviations

BLF Big Lottery Fund

COI Central Offi ce of Information CDC Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (US)

DEFRA Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

DH Department of HealthDfID Department for International

Development

FSA Food Standards Agency

GDP Gross domestic product

HDA Health Development Agency HEA Health Education AuthorityHEC Health Education Council

NHS National Health ServiceNICE National Institute for Health and Clinical

ExcellenceNGO Non-governmental organisationNSMC National Social Marketing Centre

PCT Primary care trustPSA Public service agreement

SHA Strategic health authority

Social marketing report 2006 1

Acknowledgements 2 The case for social marketing 3

1. The national review 7Why the review was undertaken, how it was done, and what it involved

2. The fi ndings 9 Summary of the fi ve key fi ndings The fi ndings in more detail

3. The recommendations: 21 the framework for the fi rst National Social Marketing Strategy for Health1: Introduction and summary of benefi ts2: Aims and objectives 3: Organisational delivery and support 4: What success should look like –

national three-year review checklist

Appendices 39 A: Understanding and realising the

potential of social marketingB: National Social Marketing Centre –

governance, aims and objectives C: Summary of organisations that have

helped inform the reviewD: Abbreviations

Contents


2 Social marketing report 2006

Working together to bring energy and excitement into our collective efforts

Acknowledgements

We owe thanks to many people across the fi elds of government, voluntary sector and business for their insight and support in helping us to produce It’s our health!

We would like to thank the Public Health Minister Caroline Flint and the Department of Health (DH) for their lead in agreeing to commission the review as a white paper commitment in Choosing health. We would particularly like to acknowledge the support and encouragement we received from Fiona Adshead, Deputy Chief Medical Offi cer, and Siân Jarvis, DH Director of Communications and Matt Tee, along with John Bromley, Wyn Roberts, Mark Sudbury, Fiona Samson and Julie Alexander, and everyone who has actively contributed to the steering groups.

We have valued the expertise, energy and hard work of Clive Blair-Stevens, Sarah Hardcastle, Dominic McVey, Catherine Slater, Lucy Yates, Siân Evans and Fiona Nicol, our colleagues at the NCC National Social Marketing Centre. We would also like to thank Centre associates Ben O’Brien, Emma Heesom, Clive Needle, Kaye Wellings, Tim Jennings, Adam Crosier, Karen Bulsara, Kristina Staley, Roslyn Kane, Erica Ison, Ray Lowry, Prof Gerard Hastings, Martine Stead and Jane Lethbridge for their contribution to the review.

Finally, we are grateful to the many hundreds of people that we have met and who have shared their views and ideas with us. We would like to thank everyone who has provided evidence and information, helped us to examine and question the issues, and ultimately who have informed the fi ndings and recommendations contained in It’s our health!.

This report is a summary of a fuller report that is available on the website www.nsms.org.uk, together with the 12 supporting papers and reports that have informed it. The full report includes further information and detail on the work of the review and its fi ndings, along with illustrative case examples.

Ed Mayo Chief Executive National Consumer Council

Jeff French Director National Social Marketing Centre


It’s our healthHealth is something to enjoy – not a cross to bear. But, the nature of public health and the challenge of promoting it, is changing. Today our attention is focused as much on chronic disease as on infectious disease. The rise in obesity, the problems of alcohol and drug misuse, sexual health, smoking and mental health are all key concerns.

People must be placed at the heart of the new public health challenge. After all, it is their health. It is ordinary people who provide most of our health care, who disseminate health information and infl uence our behaviour. It is people who not only pay for the NHS, but spend over £30 billion each year on promoting their own health and wellbeing.

The challenge that we explore in It’s our health! is how to put people at the centre of a public health strategy. We have done this by examining the potential of social marketing to help promote health in England. This is a direct response to the government’s Choosing health white paper, which recognises that more of the same would not deliver the health improvements that people need.

The review sets out how we can improve prevention and promote healthier ways of living by using what we know works. What is clear is that any attempt to improve people’s health must include concerted and sustained action to help people change their behaviour.

It’s our health! concludes that the DH should deliver a National Social Marketing Strategy for Health. Such a strategy, based on the recommendations that we make, would signifi cantly help to improve the impact of our efforts to improve people’s health.

Prevention saves moneyAt a time when effi ciency and cost savings are high on the agenda of politicians and government, the single most important opportunity that has yet to be grasped is the economic benefi t of preventing chronic ill health. Prevention is not straightforward for government. It’s long term and not highly visible. But, the success or failure of prevention touches everyone’s lives. Four

The case for social marketing

out of fi ve deaths in the UK of people under 75 could probably have been prevented. Existing public health campaigns are not currently reaching those who continue to smoke, take little exercise, eat poorly and drink too much. The fi nancial cost of preventable ill health ranks alongside our economic stability and international security. Our economic analysis estimates that the total annual cost to the country of preventable illness amounts to a minimum of £187 billion. In comparative terms this equates to 19% of total GDP (gross domestic product) for England.

Effective prevention is a win-win solution for people and the economy. We calculate that every single 1% improvement in health outcomes that result from prevention and social marketing could reduce public expenditure by £190 million. Not only that, it could save families £700 million, reduce employer costs by £110 million and generate considerable social value by reducing the level of premature death and disability.

Although there are signs of welcome progress in the treatment and care of disease in the UK, there has been less impact in the area of primary prevention of disease and support for positive health. If we are to achieve what Derek Wanless describes as the ‘necessary maximum attainable shift in population health’ in his review of NHS funding, we must reinvigorate our efforts to promote public health.

Putting people at the heart of public healthThe starting point for a fresh approach to prevention is the recognition that simply giving people information and urging them to be healthy does not work. Rather than attempting to sell health, we need to understand why people act as they do and therefore how best to support them. So, alongside providing effective health information and supporting communities and individuals to improve their own health, we need to encourage and release the energy, skills and desire for good health that they already have.

This core idea, of starting from where people are and focusing on what support they need to make changes in behaviour, explains the shift that we recommend from an awareness approach to a social marketing strategy.

“ The importance of applying social marketing principles to the development of social policy and strategy cannot be overstated especially in the area of health.”

Alan Andreasen – Professor of Marketing, Georgetown University


Building on what we know worksMarketing is very powerful approach to changing behaviour. Of course, health is not a commercial product. This is why a signifi cant international body of experience, including our review, has focused on adapting marketing methods to the specifi c and distinctive context of public health. The result is social marketing.

Social marketing is not designed to replace other aspects of the public health. It is part of the toolkit that can be used in a strategic way, to inform the mix of interventions such as regulatory action, or practical, hands-on methods to support specifi c behaviour change.

Actions that focus on individuals and wider society factors need to go together. For example, this review revealed startling evidence on the effectiveness of social marketing in relation to smoking, comparing the UK to Australia. Back in the 1970s, both countries had comparable smoking rates. Even accounting for the boost to non-smoking that will occur thanks to the new restrictions on smoking in public places, England is unlikely to reach the point at which no more than 5% of the adult population is smoking until around the year 2060. Australia is set to reach this goal 40 years earlier, in 2020. Moreover, in contrast to the UK, Australia does not have universal smoking bans, few smoking cessation clinics and no national nicotine replacement service. What Australia, Canada and other more successful countries have done is to focus a sustained effort on helping people change behaviour and not take up smoking in the fi rst place by applying many social marketing principles.

Social marketing in practiceThis review sets out strategic and operational recommendations for how the Department of Health can develop and implement a National Social Marketing Strategy for Health, as part of its Choosing health and Our health, our care, our say policy. The review also makes recommendations about how to mobilise the contribution of all sectors to achieve a wider social movement for better health.

The case for social marketing

A micro history of public health campaigns

England has a long history of organised health improvement. This has included phases focusing on sanitation, hygiene and propaganda. Since the 1950s health education, community development and the application of broader health promotion techniques have all been used. The approach of social marketing developed in the 1970s, while different, builds on a long and positive tradition of reaching out to the public to promote good health.

The Health Education Council (HEC) was a non-governmental organisation that led work on health-related campaigns for many years until 1986. In 1987 it became the Health Education Authority (HEA), and a formal part of the NHS tasked with undertaking national health-related campaigns.

In 2000 the HEA closed down and the Health Development Agency (HDA) was established to focus on public health evidence and development. Direct responsibility for national campaigns was brought into the Department of Health. In 2004 the HDA was merged with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as the Centre for Public Health Excellence.


promoting health and wellbeing. Our public services and the skill of staff that work in them represent a fantastic intelligence gathering network, and a social marketing asset capable of helping every person in the country.

It is common sense that prevention is better and cheaper than cure, but such common sense needs to be backed up by research and economic evaluation. There is growing evidence that well executed and sustained social marketing programmes work, and are cost effective when delivered as part of a comprehensive strategy. The announcement to review public health funding set out in Our health, our care, our say will help determine the level of investment that is required.

Shaping our future health policySocial marketing can help build a deeper understanding of what health and risk mean to people. It can also help to recognise the constraints and enabling factors that shape people’s everyday decisions and actions. Social marketing includes concepts that can shape policy and its implementation to promote positive behaviour and infl uence the provision of services. The nature of social marketing, with its focus on establishing unambiguous behavioural goals, can also facilitate a better approach to measuring effectiveness and accounting for the use of public funds. A National Social Marketing Strategy for Health will, we believe, allow more people to enjoy the health that shapes their lives.

It recommends that social marketing should be used in the development and implementation of all government-led attempts to promote positive health-related behaviour. The approach builds on three themes:

• put people at the centre of policy thinking and build services around their needs

• apply what works and stop what does not• build partnerships and joint commitment for

improving the health of the nation between the government and individuals, and with the private and the NGO sectors.

These themes present a challenge to look again at existing skills and methods and to build on the best of current experience while making some hard decisions to adapt or cease action in other areas.

Addressing some of the myths or confusions about social marketing will be important if we are to effectively mobilise its potential. This review has shown that when people have an opportunity to examine and understand its core principles and approaches, they increasingly see ways that it can enhance and assist their practice.

What won’t work is a superfi cial adoption of social marketing. Any attempt to just ‘bolt’ social marketing principles on to existing programmes, or to use its language without applying its disciplines, will have little impact. If social marketing principles are only used to run ‘smarter campaigns’, we will fail to deliver a consumer-focused strategy. If only a few specialist workers take up social marketing, it will have minimum impact. The challenge is to move beyond merely bolting on social marketing to existing approaches and integrate its principles to guide all efforts to help improve people’s health.

Getting the most out of what we haveA key fi nding in It’s our health! has been that there are many assets that can be better used to provide support for behaviour change. There is also great potential to increase investment by developing active partnerships with the NGO and private sectors, and not-for-profi t organisations, many of whom share the same goals of

Recommendation

We recommend that the Government, and Department of Health in particular, demonstrate their commitment to develop a genuine consumer-focused social marketing approach and respond to the fi ndings of this review by establishing its fi rst National Social Marketing Strategy for Health.

Specifi cally, we recommend that the strategy is based on the aims and objectives set out in this review.

‘VERB, it’s what you do’US Department of Health and Human Services Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2002 to present

Social marketing campaign to increase physical activity among tweens aged 9 to 13 years, after one year:

• 32% decline in the number of sedentary 9 to ten-year-olds• girls demonstrated a 37% decline in sedentary activity • lower middle households showed 25% more physical activity• 38% decline in sedentary children from low-income homes.

www.cdc.gov/youthcampaign


1. Starts and ends with a focus on the person and what’s important to them Whether as consumer, citizen, client, customer, patient, service user etc, social marketing

does not approach people in isolation, but considers them in their wider social context.

2. Has roots in both best public and commercial sector practice It is not just concerned with commercial marketing approaches, but draws on many years

of social cause and social reform work across different sectors.

3. Is an adaptable approach that can be used with small and large budgets It can be used strategically and operationally, supporting development work whether there’s

a £200 budget or £20 million!

4. Does not compete, but integrates with best public health, health promotion and health communications’ practice

Its value is that it has demonstrable potential to enhance responsiveness and improve impact and effectiveness of different interventions.

5. Uses whole-systems, holistic and wider determinants thinking It integrates a clear focus on the individual with the need to address wider infl uences

and inequalities.

6. Has a broad inclusive theoretical framework It draws on, and helps to integrate: biology; psychology; sociology; and environment

or ecology theory.

7. Actively considers and is concerned with ethical issues and values Its systematic approach means that ethical issues and values are examined. It recognises

that anything that seeks to infl uence or promote particular behaviour presents a range of ethical issues that need to be addressed.

8. Is a great deal more than advertising and communications It uses a broad marketing mix of methods. In some cases a message-based communication

approach or advertising may not be used at all.

9. Challenges top-down paternalistic ‘we know what you need’ approaches It starts where the person is at now, not where someone might think they are, or should be.

Understanding what is important to the person is a crucial focus.

10. It works! There is a growing evidence-base to show that social marketing can signifi cantly improve

impact and effectiveness.

A starter for 10

Social marketing

The following Starter for 10 has been developed to explain what social marketing involves. A further description of social marketing is included in Appendix A, and other material can be accessed via the website www.nsms.org.uk.


Why the review was undertakenThis independent national review was commissioned by the Department of Health as a commitment from the cross-government public health white paper Choosing health.

The discussion and consultation that fed into the development of the white paper highlighted a number of concerns:

• a growing realisation that continuing with existing methods and approaches was not going to deliver the type of impact on key health-related behaviour that was needed

• other comparable countries appeared to be achieving more positive impacts on behaviour by using and integrating a more dynamic consumer-focused social marketing approach into their methods

• current understanding and skills in social marketing appeared limited, and it was not immediately evident in either professional or academic training and development programmes.

As a result it was agreed that a national review should be undertaken to examine ways to improve the impact and effectiveness of health promotion, and in particular to consider the potential contribution of social marketing at national and local levels. The need to examine current understanding and skills among key professional and practitioner groups was also part of the review.

As a principal advocate for a more consumer-focused approach, the National Consumer Council (NCC) was asked to lead this work. This recognised that an independent review would draw up recommendations to address existing practice across the DH that could be considered and developed outside of current DH responsibilities.

1. The national review

Why the review was undertaken, how it was done, and what it involved.

How it was doneThe work was progressed as a joint initiative between the DH and NCC under the initial banner of the National Social Marketing Strategy for Health. A core strategy team was established and based at NCC, and joint accountability mechanisms put in place via a DH/NCC steering group.

The original remit included an examination of the options to meet the white paper commitment to establish ‘an independent body’ to progress health-related social marketing work. However, in October 2005 the DH decided that this commitment could be met by asking the NCC to act as the independent body, and to develop the strategy team further into a new National Social Marketing Centre. The governance arrangements and the aims and objectives for the NSM Centre are included in Appendix B.


What it involvedGaining a broad view – using a mix of methods and approachesThe fi ndings and recommendations in this review have been compiled using a mix of methods and approaches. This has included discussions with a wide range of policy-makers, fi eld practitioners and academics across different sectors at national, regional, and local levels and a research programme of 12 individual reviews (see above). A summary of the organisations that have informed the review is included in Appendix C. Further information is available in the full report via the website www.nsms.org.uk

Network of fi eld contacts interested in social marketing issues In addition to the many one-to-one interviews conducted by the NSM Centre team, and the formal research projects, the team gave 148 workshops and seminar sessions across the country during 2005 to 2006 that reached over 5,000 people. At all events people were encouraged to give their views about how our individual and collective work to promote health could be enhanced, and the potential of social marketing to support them. Reaction to the events was positive. It is clear that many people are concerned about how their efforts could be enhanced to achieve greater impact and effectiveness. During the course of producing this report the NSM Centre team developed a growing network of national and international social marketing contacts and advisers.

Summary of projects that have helped to inform the national review and contributed to the fi nal recommendations:

1. Effectiveness review: physical activity and social marketing 2. Effectiveness review: nutrition and social marketing 3. Effectiveness review: alcohol, tobacco and drug misuse and social marketing4. Social marketing capacity in the UK: academic sector – initial selective review5. Social marketing capacity in the UK: commercial sector – initial selective review6. Social marketing for health in the European Union – initial selective review 7. National health-related campaigns review – selective review of eleven campaigns 8. National stakeholder research fi ndings – current understanding and views 9. Summary review of current use of social marketing across government 10. Health economic analysis: initial look at the societal costs of preventable ill-health 11. Social marketing research – compendium of social and market research sources 12. Overview of key behavioural trends and targets related to Choosing health priorities

Further details and related papers are available on our website www.nsms.org.uk

“ The beauty of social marketing is that it doesn’t try to point the fi nger and tell people things, but starts from where they are now. So we can build programmes that people really want and will respond to.”

Emma Heesom – Corporate Communications Manager, Heart of Mersey


Overall the review confi rmed that the Government was right to commission an independent national review. While there are positive aspects to previous work and a range of skills and assets it can draw on, it is increasingly clear that important changes need to be made by Government and the Department of Health in particular, if it is to improve its ability to achieve the challenging health goals it has set itself.

The fi ndings of this review have been grouped into fi ve key areas. It demonstrates that adopting a strategic social marketing approach has real potential to improve the impact and effectiveness of health improvement efforts at all levels.

The next section expands on each of these fi ve key fi ndings. Each fi nding has an ‘In short we found’ section for those wanting to rapidly scan content and an ‘In more detail’ section providing further detail.

The subsequent recommendations section then picks up on each of these areas, with a specifi c set of recommendations for strategic and operational objectives.

2. The fi ndings

Summary of the fi ve key fi ndings

Summary of the fi ve key fi ndings

1. Social marketing can signifi cantly improve impact and effectiveness when applied systematically

2. There is potential to use available resources and mobilise assets more effectively

3. Current approaches are unlikely to deliver the required policy goals, leadership and effective co-ordination are key to success

4. Social marketing capacity and capability across the wider public health system is currently under-developed

5. The importance of integrating effective research and evaluation into the development of programmes and campaigns to maximise its value.


The fi ndingsFinding 1

In short we found:

• there is enough evidence to demonstrate that using social marketing systematically can signifi cantly enhance and improve the impact and effectiveness of health promotion

• understanding of social marketing at national and local levels in the UK is still relatively limited. As a result we are not as yet benefi ting fully from its potential to enhance and improve the impact and effectiveness of health promotion interventions to achieve behavioural goals

• many aspects of established and traditional approaches have clear value, and therefore efforts to improve the overall impact and effectiveness of work need to build on and respect this rather than replace it

• a combined approach using social marketing strategically to inform intervention selection and operationally to target particular behaviour has the potential to achieve the greatest benefi t.

We considered the extent to which:

• evidence is available to confi rm the potential benefi t of using social marketing• social marketing was understood and being integrated into the methods and approaches

being used and applied at national and local levels.

Finding 1: Social marketing can signifi cantly improve impact and effectiveness when applied effectively

Food Dudes Bangor Food Research Unit at the School of Psychology, University of Wales Bangor, 1992 to present

Initiative to promote healthy eating in children

Greatly increased and sustained the quantity and range of fruit and vegetables consumed by children, especially those who ate least at the outset. Two projects found:• children in a school in Brixton more than doubled their lunchtime consumption of fruit• children in a school in Salford tripled their lunchtime consumption of vegetables.

www.fooddudes.co.uk


In more detail:

• when the core concepts and principles of social marketing are applied systematically they can signifi cantly improve the impact and effectiveness of work, whether at local, national or international level

• social marketing has potential to support achievement of specifi c behavioural goals across a diverse range of issues and topics. While social marketing has a developing history in the health sector, it is also increasingly being used in other areas such as sustainability and community safety

• social marketing can help to achieve behavioural goals and directly support service development and redesign by ensuring that they respond to, and meet the needs of, their intended audiences or consumers

• understanding of social marketing can vary between and within different professional and other stakeholder groups. In some instances there are clear misunderstandings and confusions about what the theoretical and practical base of social marketing involves. This could lead to possible resistance

• once social marketing is properly understood, there is wide ranging interest in learning about it, and fi nding ways to use and apply it across different issues and topics

• the eight key features identifi ed in the social marketing benchmark criteria, developed as part of the review, appear to be the most critical aspects of social marketing (see page 42)

• as yet there are no common and consistently used core standards for social marketing. Understanding and use of the social marketing benchmark criteria is only at a very early stage

• social marketing can support efforts to achieve an appropriate and effective balance between the role of individuals, and the role of the state and relevant bodies

• the drive to identify and capture what constitutes best evidence-based practice remains key, and it is clear that much useful experience and learning has yet to reach formal literature. Active review, evaluation and capturing of learning is central to expanding the evidence-base, improving impact and effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness

• use of social marketing is limited in the UK and has yet to be integrated properly into academic and professional training and practice. Therefore, current capacity in this area is under developed

• national media campaigns can be a valuable component of a wider social marketing programme approach. However, if they are undertaken in isolation evidence indicates that they have little impact on people’s behaviour other than in very limited context. A greater impact is possible when new information can be identifi ed as the central or key infl uencing factor for a behaviour

• the review identifi ed a widely held view among policy-makers and communications practitioners, supported by growing evidence-based literature, that for national media campaigns to achieve specifi c aims using paid media there is a threshold, or critical mass that needs to be addressed in terms of resourcing

• the review identifi ed that many comparable countries such as Canada, US, Australia and New Zealand, are ahead of England in using social marketing and in developing practitioner skills and experience. However, no country had a clear strategic social marketing approach to inform and steer their overall health strategy. This means that there is real potential for the UK to lead and pioneer such an approach.

“ It’s simple, social marketing works if you put the time and effort into doing it properly. It helps you get the best value from the resources you have.”

Ray Lowry – Newcastle PCT



In short we found:

• overall, England has many resources and assets that provide a very positive context for the promotion of health

• there are real pressures on public health and health improvement-related funding at national and local levels that appear to be impacting on the intervention options and approaches considered

• social marketing’s concern with achieving tangible and measurable behavioural goals, alongside its active consideration of intervention and marketing mix issues, provides a valuable framework to ensure available resources and assets are used to greatest effect

• the issues of threshold and critical mass appear to be important when considering the resource levels allocated to different intervention methods. Valuable resources can be wasted if they are below the level where impact is possible or likely.


• a social marketing approach could increase the effective use and mobilisation of resources and assets.

Finding 2: There is potential to use available resources and mobilise assets more effectively


In more detail:

• the value of social marketing is not dependent on the level of available resources

• there is signifi cant potential to use existing resources more effectively. Key to this is:

– greater prioritisation and focus on a limited number of core priorities

– adopting active disinvestment strategies, and stopping doing what does not work or cannot achieve the required impact

– applying social marketing principles more systematically across all work programmes and campaigns to build greater consistency.

• developing a clear and sustainable investment strategy for health promotion based on social marketing principles could enhance impact and effectiveness

• developing a standardised system for budgets informed by what is known about the scale of the core challenges, and the evidence of the effectiveness or experience about the delivery of health programmes nationally and internationally. Budget allocation for specifi c programmes such as tobacco and sexual health have been informed by evidence and international comparison

• many budgets for health promotion programmes are allocated on a fi xed amount and fi xed-time basis. It is probable that many current budgets are insuffi cient to demonstrate a health impact

• the review could not identify a standardised accounting mechanism to track the impact and return on investment of health promotion budgets across the DH or the NHS

• the systematic evaluation of practices and the initial economic modelling carried out in this review indicate that it is probable the scale of health promotion resourcing in many key priority areas needs to be increased to achieve agreed PSA (public service agreements) and Choosing health targets. This evidence also indicates that health promotion programmes could be more effective if further restrictions were applied to the promotion of unhealthy products through agreement and or legislation

• many countries have developed substantial health promotion budgets with the introduction of levies or specifi c taxes on products such as tobacco, insurance schemes, co-funding arrangements with the private sector and philanthropic foundations, or per capita funding formulas. There is potential to develop similar schemes in England. However, this will fi rst require a thorough examination of such schemes, which was outside of the remit of this review.

Giving up smokingUniversity of Newcastle, April 2002 to present

Social marketing stop smoking programme aimed at pregnant women in Sunderland:

• 10-fold increase in the uptake of stop smoking services by pregnant and non-pregnant smokers*

• setting a quit date and quitting while pregnant was high when compared with PCTs without a stop smoking programme*.

*between April and June 2002

[email protected]



In short we found:

• there is valuable high level understanding and ownership among ministers and senior civil servants of the importance of social marketing, and its potential to drive improvements in health promotion. This provides a confi dence that if key recommendations are adopted and acted on, signifi cant improvements can be achieved in England

• there is wide ranging support for the view that to continue to use existing methods and approaches would be unlikely to achieve the changes in people’s behaviour required by relevant policy and related targets

• a key problem identifi ed by DH is that it is still trying to deliver the full programme of work set in motion prior to the reduction in civil service staffi ng. DH has not achieved a move towards a strategic and expert commissioning role, and the associated reduction in direct in-house delivery

• DH staff across policy, programmes, communications and research have a wide range of skills and experience. However, even highly skilled staff are struggling to deliver the type of impacts on key behaviour that the policy aims and targets require

• co-ordination within DH, and between government departments, presents real challenges. While there are indications that linking up consumer research between departments, for example, could improve cost-effective use of resources, in practice co-ordination is an issue that is not yet resolved

• the commissioning process of health-related programmes and campaigns should be clarifi ed and streamlined. This includes the role and services available to DH from the COI (Central Offi ce of Information)

• across the wider public health system from local to district levels, there are clear pockets of enthusiastic leadership and willingness to integrate learning from social marketing.


• there was recognition and appreciation of the limitations of existing public health and health communications approaches, and commitment to making changes

• issues affecting the current approaches, systems and structures, and how these might be built on and enhanced.

Finding 3: Current approaches are unlikely to deliver the required policy goals, leadership and effective co-ordination are key to success


In more detail:

• there is national high level appreciation of the need to review and adjust methods and approaches in order to achieve improved impact and effectiveness of health promotion campaigns

• there is recognition that the Health Secretary and the Minister for Public Health have key championing roles, in ensuring the effective development and delivery of health-related programmes and campaigns

breadth of prioritiesstaff were being asked to address a range of tasks that lacked unambiguous priorities

the level of policy and organisational change in recent yearseven where changes were seen as positive, adjusting to them limited the time available to develop and deliver work

inherent pressure toward immediate and short-term solutionsalthough an understandable political reality, in practice acts to limit the ability of staff to plan for the medium and long-term

attempts to maintain existing approaches based on previous higher staff resourcing levelsDH staff were, in some instances, struggling to deliver a broadly similar level of work with signifi cantly reduced human resources. A common, but expensive and probably unsustainable solution, has been to use consultants and contractor-supplied staff

diffi culties in achieving genuine cross-departmental workingdespite recognition of the value of cross-departmental working, the complexity of joining up work across disciplinary and departmental boundaries was diffi cult in practice. Where this did occur it appeared to be to the individual credit of staff who had made conscious and concerted efforts to achieve it

genuine diffi culties in linking national and local workthe complexity of mobilising action across the wider public health system presents signifi cant challenges. While there were some examples where the link between national and local development and delivery worked well, this was not usually the case.

• it was not possible to identify a uniform operating approach for working with ministers to maximise the value of their contribution

• the breadth of experience and skills of DH staff across policy, communications and research represents a major asset, although levels of understanding and application of social marketing currently vary

• the review found that even experienced and skilled staff sometimes struggled to deliver challenging targets that have complex behavioural goals. The key reasons are summarised in the box below.

SunSmartNew Zealand government. Run by the Health Sponsorship Council and the Cancer Society of NZ, 1993 to present

Programme to increase the use of sun protection among children under 12 years old and their care-givers

Achieved increased uptake of sun protective behaviours: • in 1994, 32% of respondents reported use of sunscreen

in the weekend prior to interview – in 2005/6 this had risen to 49%

• in 1994, 49% of respondents reported that they had never been burnt – in 2005/6 this fi gure was 61%

www.sunsmart.org.nz


• DH has at least six commissioning and programme development approaches. These approaches involve the COI, the Media Centre, the DH campaigns and policy teams, and a mix of agencies. There are differing views about the value that is added by COI, and the most effi cient and effective way to commission and develop programmes and campaigns

• the role of regional directors of public health and the public health leads in strategic health authorities can be critical to the successful roll out and co-ordination of activity from national to local level. There is potential for regional public health staff and strategic health authorities to provide an important bridge between national and local work, in particular to inform and feed in key intelligence and insights.

Finding 3

• there is real potential to improve co-ordination within DH and with other government departments. But potential opportunities to achieve greater synergy and shared learning are being missed because it is a complex issue. At times different policy areas compete with each other for the attention of a given audience, rather than co-ordinating action together

• while DH is working to improve internal co-ordination, there is a tendency to become entrenched in particular policies and topics that limits the potential for wider shared learning

• the review identifi ed a number of good examples of partnership marketing that have been developed by DH, which demonstrate the value of co-delivery with suitable partner organisations and sectors

Spreading the word about mouth cancerNHS Scotland, 2002 to 2005

Social marketing project to encourage ‘at risk’ groups to go to the doctor earlier if they had signs and symptoms of mouth cancer:

• achieved 185% increase in the number of suspicious lesions that were referred to Glasgow Dental Hospital. This remained at almost double long after the campaign had ended

• almost 70% of those who went for mouth cancer treatment were the direct result of the campaign.

www.woscap.co.uk



In short we found:

• current capacity and capability in social marketing is still at a relatively early stage. There is, however, a lot of experience and related skills that can be drawn on to provide a good base for further developments. Public health, health promotion and health communications all provide valuable experience and skills to build on

• different sectors are moving forward at different rates. As various organisations begin to establish their social marketing approaches and portfolios, there is potential for different and inconsistent approaches to undermine the ability to assess the impact of work and to capture and share learning effectively

• social marketing has yet to be properly integrated into academic and professional training and practice, and therefore current capacity in this area is limited.


• existing capacity, capability and skills could be built on, strengthened and enhanced for greater effect.

Finding 4: Social marketing capacity and capability across the wider public health system is currently under-developed


In more detail:

• compared to many other countries, England has a comparatively well-developed and dynamic public sector infrastructure (including public health). While there is a sound foundation, there is limited direct social marketing capacity and skills

• disciplines such as public health, health promotion, health communications and research all have critically important contributions to make, but as yet do not routinely incorporate social marketing in relevant academic or professional training

• the academic sector, in particular, is under-developed in relation to social marketing. It has very few dedicated courses and very limited modular content on social marketing as part of other marketing, communications, or public health courses. Nevertheless, there is a growing core of academics increasingly keen to develop and expand capacity in this area that could be built on in the future

• the private sector is beginning to respond to the need for social marketing. There is a growing range of commercial companies that describe and position themselves as social marketing agencies. However, what is presented as social marketing can vary signifi cantly, which can create diffi culties for those commissioning work

• while the dedicated public health and health promotion sectors already use many of the core concepts and principles of social marketing, they are not as yet applying them systematically

• social marketing capacity and capability is limited at government department level, and across national agencies. Nevertheless, a number of departments and agencies have been using social marketing to

varying degrees. This includes DEFRA (Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs) and DfID (Department for International Development), which have been using it over a number of years. The government’s recent strategic communications work Engage, led by the Cabinet Offi ce is grounded in a common core set of social marketing principles. This will add additional impetus and drive to improve the impact and effectiveness of their work programmes

• further development of co-delivery and multi-sector working offers potential to enhance the reach and effectiveness of health promotion, and mobilise assets as yet not being fully realised or engaged

• there are a growing number of examples of multi-sector working between statutory and voluntary, or non-governmental sectors that provides a good basis to build on. The NGO sector’s closeness to key audiences and consumers means that they often have important understanding and insights when they plan interventions, particularly where segmentation options are being considered

• co-delivery of work with the commercial or private sector appears relatively limited. There may be a number of reasons for this that merit further examination. For example, during the review it was evident that there is a tendency for the commercial sector to be perceived as a problem, rather than as a potential asset. If this can be addressed there could be signifi cant interest from the commercial sector to build more constructive relationships with the public sector. The commercial sector could provide a valuable set of additional skills, expertise and insights that, if managed effectively, could strengthen the reach, impact and effectiveness of programmes and campaigns.

Finding 4



In short we found:

• while research and evaluation occurred across programmes and campaigns in one form or another, there is as yet no single unambiguous and commonly-applied approach in use

• there is potential to improve review and evaluation to increase impact on key behavioural goals

• fi eld practitioners are keen to have better access to key research and evaluation from national campaigns so that they can consider how this can inform their own work, and reinforce links and connections.


• existing research and evaluation could be built on, but also reframed, to achieve a greater focus on achieving behavioural outcomes.

Finding 5: The importance of integrating effective research and evaluation into the development of programmes and campaigns to maximise its value

In more detail:

• a wide range of market research techniques and data sources can assist in scoping and evaluation, but they are not always used effectively. For example:

– government departments commission a great deal of audience research that, even within a department, may not be fully used

– there is signifi cant potential to improve links with the commercial, NGO and community sectors. All of these sectors have important understanding and insight into consumers that is not, as yet, being fully utilised.

• the current focus of research and evaluation approaches is not always consistent and linked to measuring tangible impacts on behaviour

• further work to develop a common understanding and approach to establish appropriate behavioural goals for programmes and campaigns will assist development and support effective assessment of impact

• the DH approach to gathering and assessing international evidence and experience prior to the launch of new programmes varies from campaign to campaign, and there are many examples of good practice. However, fi eld practitioners are not always kept informed, and there is no standard system to make this information and intelligence readily available. The recent move to disseminate campaign reviews is a good example of how to improve this situation


Finding 5

• current programme and campaign evaluation tends to focus on short-term impact measures including awareness and recognition measurement. This form of tracking evaluation is vitally important to help shape interventions and give early feedback on success. Other evaluation measures look at establishing a new service or setting up new interventions by a certain date. There is also evidence to suggest that some efforts are made to track behaviour change against targets. For example, the four-week smoking quit rate is directly linked to agreed strategic targets. However, due to methodological and resources issues, measuring behavioural impacts for the majority of DH-led health programmes is currently less well developed

• review research indicates that campaigns that are grounded in a good understanding of the customer, intensive, sustained, specifi cally targeted and delivered through a mixed marketing approach with strong local support are most likely to raise awareness levels, infl uence attitudes and achieve behavioural goals

• evidence indicates that the UK, and England in particular, is noticeably under-represented in published literature. We found few examples of published reviews and evaluations of programmes and campaigns consistent with social marketing. This is despite the fact that there are many examples of such work at national and local levels. This indicates that, unlike some other countries, we have not as yet established a culture where all practitioners routinely produce an intervention summary report and related articles for publication. This means that a great deal of valuable experience and learning remains outside the formal literature

• the potential to develop joint evaluation between different health campaigns and programmes, particularly where target groups and issues overlap, is not yet being realised

• the range of commercially available market research data is not well integrated with demographic and epidemiological data. The importance of such data is not well understood, and there is insuffi cient data being gathered and shared within departments and with other agencies

• responsibilities for research, development, evaluation and market research varies, and they are not always clear within departments and between agencies

• methods of capturing evidence about what works, and why, are narrowly defi ned and this limits the development of good intelligence and insight

• there are some good examples from front line practitioners of intelligence gathering systems about people’s needs and the impact of current health promotion interventions. However, there is room to develop a more systematic approach to intelligence collection. During our review, local practitioners often expressed a desire for DH policy leads to increase the level of briefi ng on national programmes and campaigns, particularly about the research base. They wanted opportunities to input potentially valuable local learning and good practice

• there is evidence of targeting in most campaigns in terms of demographic and epidemiological criteria, and with clearly defi ned audience and risk groups. Audience research has been used to good effect in revealing typologies that help in segmentation. However, the subtle distinctions made in marketing between population categories, by using psychographic data to understand motivations and barriers, is less evident, and less commonly translated into campaigns or programme delivery

• understanding of research methods, statistical signifi cance and the issue of attributing observed changes in population knowledge, attitudes and behaviour to particular interventions varies from campaign to campaign.


Recommendation to adopt a strategic social marketing approachIn light of our fi ndings, we recommend that the Government, and the Department of Health in particular, adopt the following National Social Marketing Strategy for Health. It focuses on building capacity and skills to ensure all national and local programmes and campaigns use a consistent social marketing approach to enhance their impact and effectiveness.

IntroductionThe strategy we set out here is based on a long-term strategic social marketing approach for the DH and the NHS to adopt and use to steer their work to achieve specifi c health-related behavioural goals.

The approach builds on government policy and has the potential to assist:

• individual and community consumer-focused action and support

• efforts to address wider infl uences and other health determinants.

The strategy is challenging but deliverable. It provides a framework for implementing social marketing systematically across health promotion and improvement programmes. It does not highlight specifi c health issues that need to be addressed. These have already been agreed and set out in key government health and health-related policy papers. It does, however, highlight the importance of achieving greater prioritisation in the broad sweep of government priorities.

While this strategy recommends some fundamental changes to the way that the DH leads health improvement, it is not a detailed change management programme. If the recommendations set out in this report are accepted, a managed change programme will be needed to ensure a smooth transfer from the current approach.

3. The recommendations

Framework for the fi rst National Social Marketing Strategy for HealthIntroduction and benefi tsAims and objectives Organisational delivery and support What success would look like – national three-year review checklist

The exchange for DH to considerThe DH needs to consider the costs and benefi ts of the recommendations. Using social marketing theory, the exchange that is on the table relates to the costs of adopting the strategy versus the benefi ts. This statement of cost and benefi ts overleaf makes a powerful case for adopting the recommended action.


The recommendations

Structure and rationale for this sectionThe recommendations are set out as fi ve key strategic objectives which link to the fi ve areas identifi ed in the fi ndings section.

Each of the strategic objectives is followed by a range of operational objectives. They provide some practical fi rst steps for implementing a more consumer-focused approach to improved health promotion in England.

However, it should be noted, at the specifi c request of the DH, they do not at this time:

• include a detailed timetable• set out specifi c details of how recommendations

should be delivered.

Costs of adopting a strategic social marketing approach• Loss of the quick fi x. The need to move away

from using rapidly developed health campaigns as a way of demonstrating that something is being done, rather than the development of campaigns that form part of well-researched and long-term behaviour change strategy

• Loss of the perception of total control. The cost of building an understanding that the Government has an enabling and key leadership role, rather than total responsibility for promoting health. This cost includes the need for the Government to acknowledge this position and defend it

• Cost of investing in preparation. This cost involves the need to invest in thorough research, scoping and pre-testing interventions before launch. This cost also means moving towards longer term planning and delivery

• Cost of being accused of abdicating responsibility and building delivery alliances with the private sector that will not serve the best interests of public health. This cost includes explaining and defending the need to build strong partnerships with the private sector to promote health. At the same time the public must be protected from the negative impacts on health of actions by the private sector

• Cost of investing in co-ordination. The need to invest resources in joining up government action, and building and maintaining strong partnerships with communities, professionals, and the NGO and private sectors.

This is because DH has advised us that the pace and capacity to take forward the strategy requires their further consideration. The business of deciding which recommendations are progressed and how best to deliver them is, rightly, the responsibility of the DH.

A three-year checklist to help DH and others assess the extent to which they have been able to implement the strategy successfully is included on page 38.

Benefi ts of adopting a strategic social marketing approach• Improved overall impact and effectiveness

of national programmes and campaigns that includes an increased return on investment. There are also savings gained from stopping ineffective or counter productive interventions

• Better understanding of health needs and workable solutions – increased understanding and responsiveness to people’s health needs and a strengthened focus on achieving specifi c, tangible and measurable behavioural goals

• Effective prioritisation of health improvement programmes – clearer targeting of interventions based on a sound understanding of what is most likely to impact and infl uence people’s behaviour

• Clearer understanding of the balance between individual and state actions needed to improve health

• Simplifi ed and de-layering of the delivery system of health improvement programmes, strengthening co-ordination, and clarifying roles and responsibilities between national and local levels

• Greater use of skills and expertise and resources from across all sectors, and maximising expertise from the private and NGO sectors

• Enhancing evaluation and sharing of learning within and between programmes.


The recommendationsAims and objectives

Strategic objectives

1. Achieve an enhanced consumer-focused approach based on social marketing principles and practice that puts the consumer at the centre of all development and delivery work

2. Increase the effective use of resources, and their overall impact, by better mobilising available assets and developing a diverse resource base

3. Enhance DH leadership, prioritisation and development of its expert commissioning role

4. Build capacity and skills to integrate social marketing within existing strategies and interventions at national and local level

5. Reconfi gure research and evaluation approaches to ensure movement towards behavioural goals can be assessed, and to systematically capture and share learning.

National Social Marketing Strategy for Health

Strategic aimIncrease the impact and effectiveness of health-related programmes and campaigns at national and local levels, by ensuring that social marketing principles are adopted and systematically applied

The following represents a framework for the proposed National Social Marketing Strategy for Health. It sets out a high-level strategic aim, and fi ve objectives for the Department of Health to adopt, and is followed by more detailed operational objectives.


Operational principles

• Use a consistent set of consumer-focused social marketing principles and concepts across all national programmes and campaigns, using the social marketing benchmark criteria

• Use a common core process for development of all programmes and campaigns, using the social marketing total process planning model with a strong focus on the initial scoping stage

• Actively capture and share learning by producing reports on all work

• Mental and emotional health integrated across all future programme and campaign interventions, and not just as a dedicated mental health programme.

Strategic objective 1Achieve an enhanced consumer-focused approach based on best social marketing principles and practice that puts the consumer at centre of all development and delivery work

The recommendationsStrategic objective 1

Operational objectives

• Apply social marketing benchmark criteria to all national programmes and campaigns to guide and steer their development directly

In particular these should be used to develop the new national mental health and Fitter Britain campaigns announced in Our health, our care, our say. These interventions should be developed as long-term social marketing programmes. Outside of the dedicated mental health programme, mental and emotional health and physical wellbeing should be integrated as key features of all programmes and campaigns.

• Apply a standardised scoping stage to all national and local programmes and campaigns

A standardised scoping stage will ensure that the consumer view is considered together with analysis of intervention options and the most effective balance, or mix, to achieve the greatest potential impact. Producing a scoping report will ensure that all practitioners are able to access information, and the assumptions being used to guide subsequent

development work. The report will clarify the initial behavioural focus and goals. Scoping reports should be produced for all commissioned work and should subsequently be used to inform evaluation.

• Produce a scoping report for each of the eight national health priorities in Choosing health

To assist integration and links between national and local development of programmes and campaigns, and to ensure the premise for their development is clear. These reports should follow a consistent approach.

• Establish clear stakeholder strategies as a key component of a formal scoping stage. With specifi c multi-sector stakeholder groups as part of all national programmes and campaigns

Stakeholder strategies should examine and clarify appropriate engagement with the NHS, local authorities, NGO, commercial sectors, and key professional associations. Groups should involve experts and consumers affected by the issue, so that they can work together to clarify understanding of the problem and to discuss potential solutions. This work


should build on and integrate with existing community, consumer and patient groups and initiatives, rather than create new structures. The groups should act as sub-groups to the new national reference group for health and wellbeing.

• Adopt a consumer-value branding strategy for all national programmes and campaigns

This should articulate the relationship between organisational brands (the message giver) and topic or campaign branding. While there are clear benefi ts in promoting the NHS more widely as a health message giver brand, this should only be done where there is direct evidence that the intended target audience would be likely to value and appreciate messages and interventions coming from the NHS. Where this might be unclear, or where there is evidence that it could impede communications and engagement, alternative approaches should be considered and a rationale for this clearly established.

• Undertake further work to determine the potential value of establishing potential iconic brands To assist with coherence of longer-term health programme communications such as tackling obesity and exercise promotion.

• Continuing the selective use of key partner agencies To front specifi c campaigns and interventions where

there is good evidence that the authority and image of the partner will enhance impact.

• Establish a set of clear core scripts for each national programme and campaign which can be readily communicated to fi eld practitioners, to assist development of consistent messaging in key areas

Core scripts should allow everyone working on priority programmes to be ‘on message’. They would represent a DH quality assurance scheme for health messages and information. Core scripts could be actively promoted for use by any public, private or NGO sector organisation to spread quality-assured health information and messages. They should be used by all DH-sponsored new media services, such as web sites, as the basis for advice to the public on health promotion issues. They should also be developed for all priority segments of the population. The concept of ‘message bundling’, for example combining messages focused on sexual health and alcohol consumption, should be explored as a mechanism for creating a more consumer-focused approach to providing health information, and achieving and sustaining behaviour change.

• Commission a specifi c review focused on using social marketing for tackling health inequalities

This review should draw together the published literature on how social marketing has been used to tackle health inequality and other forms of disadvantage, together with practical examples of national and local interventions that may not have been formally published in peer reviewed journals.

TruthThe American Legacy Foundation, February 2000 to present

National anti-smoking education campaign targeting 12 to 17-year-olds, after two years:

• 75% of all young people were able to describe one or more of the Truth ads accurately• young people aware of the Truth campaign were 66% more likely to say that

they would not smoke in the coming year• smoking in teenagers reduced in the US from 25.3% to 18%.

Truth accounts for around 22% of the decrease.

www.protectthetruth.org

“ If we put social marketing into practice we will have a real chance of achieving the challenging PSA targets we have to work on.”

Fiona Adshead – Deputy Chief Medical Offi cer



• Adopt a mission-driven and evidence-based budget approach that refl ects the resources needed to achieve programme goals

• Adopt a system of longer-term planning and budget allocation that includes return on investment analysis

• Enhance effective working between the public and private sector

• Use co-funding and co-resourcing arrangements for interventions across the public sector and with the private and NGO sectors.

Strategic objective 2Increase the effective use of resources and their overall impact by better mobilising available assets and developing a diverse resource base



• Establish an active disinvestment strategy The strategy is necessary to both refocus DH effort

on strategic commissioning and systematically exit from direct in-house delivery wherever possible, and to discontinue non-priority activity. As part of its prioritisation process DH should develop criteria for disinvestment together with those for selecting priority areas.

• Produce an investment model and budget decision aid as part of the review of public health spending recommendation in Our health, our care, our say

The model should aim to determine the necessary resources needed to achieve agreed Choosing health-related behaviour goals and Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets. It should include an appraisal of international funding models, actual and possible contribution from other sectors (including

the private and NGO sectors), and a decision aid to facilitate future investment decisions. It should build on the economic cost and investment modelling report developed as part of this review.

• Review and establish a mechanism to facilitate cross-government discussion and co-ordination of national public campaigns and related programmes

To assist: a) improved co-ordination of government national

campaigns between different departments, particularly considering issues related to scheduling work and its potential impact on similar target audiences

b) share developing consumer insights and learning in relation to effective methods and approaches. This includes continuing to develop a close working relationship, and where possible a joint work programme, with the Engage strategic communications work across government lead by the Cabinet Offi ce.


• Review and establish a mechanism to facilitate greater internal DH co-ordination of national health-related programmes and campaigns

There would be a strong case for establishing a social marketing Programme Board consisting of all relevant senior DH stakeholders to act as the co-ordinating body for all health-related programmes and campaigns. Such a mechanism could be supported by a number of project teams covering agreed priorities, who would report to the social marketing Programme Board.

• Establish a forward e-calendar of health-related programmes, campaigns, and related events

The calendar should be available to the public and be widely promoted to all communications, public health and other relevant professions and groups. It should provide advance notice and reminders for local practitioners and also act as a one-stop centre for anyone wanting to know what is being planned and delivered, and how they can make a contribution to it. This new service should also provide a mechanism for contributing views and examples of practice from local work.

• Develop guidance on how private sector organisations and NGOs can support government-led social marketing interventions

This should set out practical rules of engagement to guide development and management of partnerships. It should also include advice on different forms of partnership and related governance issues. As part of this initiative, DH should establish a volunteer programme and agreement framework that allows voluntary and commercial sectors to support DH-commissioned social marketing programmes and campaigns. The agreement framework would allow organisations to volunteer time, expertise, research capacity, data, paid-for media time, interactive web-based service access, direct audience access and funds to support the development and implementation of DH priority programmes. DH would seek volunteers for each of its programmes to assist in the development and delivery planning and implementation. Clear guidelines should be developed to protect the integrity of programme aims and objectives.

• Move towards a system of mission-driven budgeting for the 2007/08 planning round

For 2007/08 all central budgets should be allocated following a clear prioritisation process using criteria that assess plans and proposed budgets against expected return on investment in terms of achieving specifi c behavioural goals. Budgets should be developed on the basis of a plausible intervention strategy that can demonstrate a contribution to behavioural goals. Budgets should be allocated over more than one year to facilitate better medium to longer-term strategy development, delivery and evaluation.

• Ensure PCT funding for health promotion is ring-fenced or subject to separate reporting via local directors of public health

As indicated in Our health, our care, our say, PCTs (primary care trusts) should also be required to report explicitly on the application and impact of their Choosing health allocation as part of their annual appraisal. A review of these appraisals should be conducted and made publicly available. A key principle should be to ensure that investment can be more clearly identifi ed and tracked.

• Establish written agreements with all government departments that lead or contribute to health-related communications and related behavioural interventions

These agreements should set out how departments will co-ordinate their efforts and how funds allocated to projects of mutual concern will be used to maximum effect. Agreements should also be developed with key government agencies, including the Health Protection Agency, the Big Lottery Fund and the Food Standards Agency.

Where’s your head at?Australian government. Phase one March 2001 and phase two April 2005

Programme to reduce the proportion of young Australians using illicit drugs:

• 41% of parents reported that the campaign had prompted them to take some action, including talking with their child about drugs (81%) (31% of all parents)

• 65% of young people reported that the campaign had infl uenced them. The most common infl uence was avoiding using drugs (36%).

www.drugs.health.gov.au



• Prioritise effective co-ordination of action and support across government

• Adopt a clear expert commissioning role across the DH. To add value by ‘only doing that which only DH can do’. Focus on: policy development and support; programme prioritisation; strategic development and intervention option selection; co-ordination and review and evaluation

• Effective prioritisation to drive all efforts by using theory and best available evidence

• Inform and involve all key practitioners and stakeholders proactively. This is integral to the development process and not an add on.

Strategic objective 3Enhance DH leadership, prioritisation and development of expert commissioning roles



• Adopt a clear aim and set of objectives for a new National Social Marketing Strategy for Health that is consistent with the recommendations in this report, and which can be readily communicated to internal and external stakeholders

Set out a clear aim for the strategy with measurable objectives that can directly guide its development and related commissioning work, and help facilitate effective ongoing review and evaluation. Make these readily accessible via the DH and NSM Centre websites so that all relevant stakeholders can clearly access and understand what the strategy is seeking to achieve.

• Establish a specifi c planned management of change programme to implement the new strategy across the DH and NHS

Use the NHS Institute’s eight-step guidance on handling successful change to develop a specifi c change-management programme.

• Undertake a formal review in 2009 To assess the extent to which social marketing has been

integrated into national programmes and campaigns as a result of the new strategy (see page 38).

• Ensure the DH business operating model focuses on its core roles of policy, strategy development, and related expert commissioning, and actively reduces direct in-house delivery of work

This should mean a move away from undertaking operational development and direct management of health-related programmes and campaigns. In addition to staff capacity considerations, expert commissioning is a key priority to ensure greater consistency and co-ordination across health-related programme and campaign commissioning. Whatever structures DH adopts to achieve this it should ensure that all commissioning is directly based on the social marketing benchmark criteria. While exceptions may occasionally be required, the standard operating principle should be for all commissioned programmes and campaigns to be managed and delivered outside the Department of Health.


• Review and establish clear mechanisms for increased and explicit prioritisation of DH health promotion plans

Explicit criteria should be developed that are consistent with the principles of Choosing health and Our health, our care, our say. The criteria should also be informed by what is known about effective practice and the size and seriousness of health challenges. DH should establish an agreement with all policy leads and sponsors across the department that all social marketing programmes and campaigns led by DH and its agencies will be subject to a collective prioritisation and budget allocation process. This should include discussions and agreement with the key sponsors such as the Chief Medical Offi cer, the Chief Nursing offi cer, the Chief Pharmacist and Chief Dentist. This agreement should also be extended to include key NGOs and other public health organisations that are responsible for delivering campaigns, health information and behavioural programmes on behalf of DH. The review should examine what is known about levels of investment needed to achieve desired programme goals. This review should be used to inform ongoing Comprehensive Spending Reviews.

• Establish a standardised social marketing planning system based on the social marketing total process planning model and related benchmark criteria

All future plans should state explicitly their behavioural goals and how these will be measured and tracked. Ministers should be provided with a review of all plans to demonstrate that they meet standard criteria for planning and delivery. A national programmes and campaigns report and publications schedule should be established.

• Produce summary review reports for every national programme and campaign, and establish a specifi c publications strategy to ensure all work is presented to relevant academic and research journals for potential publication as a standard operating principle

The reports should follow an agreed standard format, setting out clearly the rationale and research informing the work; what was undertaken; and relevant review and evaluation data.

• Review and establish a new service level agreement (SLA) between DH and COI to maximise the contribution of the COI service to DH

A new SLA should be agreed that clearly sets out the role of both the DH and COI. The SLA should also include a consistent model of engagement that sets out how the DH will engage the COI, and what services will be delivered, at what cost and to what quality standards. The development of a new SLA should also be taken as an opportunity to clarify a longer term vision of how the DH and COI will develop their relationship into the medium and longer term.

• Ensure consistent use of social marketing across COI

DH should work with COI to ensure that a consistent social marketing approach is applied to the development of all new programmes and campaigns, research and evaluation projects delivered for DH. The models developed should be consistent with the standardised planning systems and quality criteria that will be applied by DH to the development and commissioning of future campaigns and programmes.

• Invest in developing expertise and understanding about the strategic application of new information technologies for health-focused social marketing

DH should commission a specialist agency to report on examples of how central government has used new media from the NHS, local authorities and internationally. The review should encompass the private sector’s use of new media to promote health and health-related issues.

• Ensure effective engagement of ministers in the development of programmes and campaigns, particularly at the scoping stage

Ministerial roles are crucial as champions for effective approaches and strategies. It is key that there is effective planning and work scheduling to ensure that there is clarity about what ministers need to sign-off and when this will occur. DH needs to ensure that there are simple and effective systems in place for tracking and co-ordinating the development of programmes and campaigns. It should also be clear when and how a minister will be part of the process. DH should provide ministers with practical tools and checklists to help them effectively champion, drive and monitor the DH in acting as expert commissioners, and overall programme and campaign development.

• Ensure the effective use of external consultants and short-term contractors where there is a clear rationale for using their specialist skills and knowledge

There is a need to co-ordinate the appointment and use of consultants and to monitor their costs and contribution in a more systematic way.



• Build staff and practitioner capacity and skills

• Foster the growth of dedicated academic and research capacity

• Work with professional associations to support and champion the development of best practice and integrating social marketing understanding and skills in their work

• Build greater understanding and skills in social marketing at national and local levels

• Develop practical learning resources to assist relevant local and national leaders and practitioners

• Ensure all future interventions are built on principles of co-delivery

• Build strong partnerships across the public sector with the private and not-for-profi t sectors.

Strategic objective 4Build capacity and skills to integrate social marketing within existing strategies and interventions at national and local level.



• Confi rm a three-year work programme with the National Social Marketing Centre, and formally launch the Centre as part of response to the review

Review governance arrangements and initiate work to examine potential options for developing a mixed resourcing base. Launch the National Social Marketing Centre formally as fulfi lment of the government’s Choosing health commitment to appoint an independent body to champion the development of social marketing in England. It is proposed that the Centre remains located at the National Consumer Council for at least a further period of three years to ensure that initial work can be capitalised on and impetus sustained. During this period it is recommended that work is undertaken to

examine the feasibility of transforming the Centre into a not-for-profi t social foundation supported by a mixed resourcing base.

• Further develop a national training programme of social marketing seminars and conferences Provide an ongoing range of social marketing training and development opportunities to increase understanding and develop practical skills in social marketing.

• Provide PCTs and SHAs with practical hands-on support in developing local social marketing interventions and link them to national programmes

DH should capitalise on the initial work to establish a social marketing network of champions at PCT and local authority level to develop and spread


good practice. Initial support should be provided free to PCTs for the fi rst three years, with a review to examine ways that ongoing support might be delivered via a not-for-profi t payment service.

• Establish a new public health partnership service similar to that of the CDC Foundation (Centre for Disease Control in the USA)

The aim of this is to build partnerships with the private sector. It would provide co-ordination and leadership for the development of partnership agreements, co-delivery, sponsorship and other forms of corporate support and joint projects at national and local level. The service would also work to capture and disseminate examples of good practice, maintain an active network of partners and highlight DH and NHS teams that want partners and support. It should be located outside DH so that DH can maintain its strategic and impartial status.

• Launch up to ten local social marketing champion sites with particular focus on key Spearhead priority areas These sites should act as champions and learning hubs to develop and spread good practice, and as live demonstration sites for the rest of the country. It is proposed that these should be generated from local interest and operate within the existing local resource base – that is, not generated through special additional funding from the centre. They should have access to hands-on support to help them invest local resources in social marketing interventions directed at addressing key health promotion priorities. The aim of this scheme would be to demonstrate that the application of social marketing using local resources can create measurable improvements in health-related behavioural goals.

• Develop a number of practical resources that include a specifi c social marketing planning guide and a guide on how to evaluate and report fi ndings

These guides should contain real life examples and be circulated to all relevant practitioners. They should set out a standardised way of planning and evaluating

interventions, and be in a format that enables staff to use them for large-scale national and small local interventions.

• Establish a joint development programme with the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA)

The programme should be a part of the existing local government learning hub supported by IDeA to capture and share examples of health-related social marketing. The examples should be collected in a standardised format and logged with the proposed knowledge bank.

• Establish a university network to extend access to social marketing courses, modules and/or research programmes

Specialist standard setting and accreditation bodies, including the Chartered Institute of Marketing, should also be engaged with the university network. It should focus on equipping as many practitioners as possible with basic social marketing understanding and skills. Key recipients would include public health specialists, health promotion offi cers, health communication leads, teenage pregnancy co-ordinators, tobacco control leads, health trainers, health improvement leads and healthy schools staff, and community nursing staff.

• Develop specialist social marketing roster COI should develop a social marketing roster using

quality criteria agreed with the DH that draw on the guidance produced by the NSM Centre on fi nding and selecting specialist social marketing agencies. The roster should include both national agencies and smaller contractors that can provide services for local public health teams.

• Establish a social marketing fellowship scheme The fellowship scheme could offer bursaries to

mid-career public health, health promotion, health communication specialists and other relevant staff working in NHS. The scheme should be overseen by a board with representatives from relevant professional bodies, and aim to develop further participants’ experience and academic understanding of social marketing. Sponsorship for the scheme

“ Looking into social marketing we quickly realised that there were practical things we could learn that could really improve what we do.”

Diana Forrest – Director of Public Health, Knowsley PCT


should be sought. The fellowships would allow experienced staff, who are looking to become social marketing leaders for the NHS, to work on national programmes, attend training and attain a formal social marketing qualifi cation. The scheme would also support a limited amount of international travel for each fellow to visit effective social marketing projects in other countries.

• Develop current dialogue further with the European Commission, World Health Organization Europe

The dialogue should focus on what support they can provide to facilitate sharing of information and learning about social marketing across Europe.

• Integrate social marketing into core skills and competency frameworks for key public health and health communications-related staff working with the Public Health Development Team

To build working links between the NSM Centre, the Public Health Development Team and local workforce planners, public health networks, professional associations and other workforce planning groups, to incorporate social marketing training into appropriate courses and competency schedules.

• Develop further the National NGO PHorum (Public Health) as a key vehicle for engaging key national NGOs in planning and delivery of all future social marketing enhanced national programmes and campaigns

Instigate a system for regular briefi ngs between NGOs and DH policy leads. The NGO PHorum should be used as a mechanism for gathering views about good practice, intelligence and schedules of campaigns from the NGO sector to inform the planning delivery and evaluation of all future DH-commissioned programmes and campaigns.

• Develop proactive DH partnerships with the mass media, writers, production companies, directors and producers

DH should establish a relationship with the CDC-funded Hollywood Health and Society service to exchange best practice. This service should also provide access to expert public health advice for the media sector to inform the development of documentary and drama programmes with a health focus.

• Commission a national health communications guide based on social marketing

This would be similar to the Pink book commissioned by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The guide would bring together what is known about all aspects of effective health communications and draw on theory, evidence, planning tools and examples of good practice.

• Ensure new media services form a integral part of all national social marketing programmes and campaigns

The development and marketing of all new media services, including the future development of Health Direct, will need to be developed as an integral component of all future social marketing programmes. There should be a rationalisation and integration of new media services including web sites. The development of any new service, should include the facility to act as a live data-gathering mechanism using tools such as the proposed Life Check. New media services such as Health Direct could be developed as joint ventures with established health information providers from the NGO, public and not-for-profi t sectors. The DH should consider consolidating its new media expertise and services as part of its response to the Transformational Government strategy. There should be investment in developing expertise and understanding about the strategic application of new information technologies for health-focused social marketing. DH should develop a long-term plan to capitalise on the potential of new information technologies to promote health.

Strategic objective 4



• Establish a clear behavioural focus, with research and evaluation geared to assessing and measuring actual impacts on behaviour

• Develop a shared and consistent approach, co-ordinating contributions from across policy, communications and research

• Systematically capture and record experience and learning from national and local practitioners.

Strategic objective 5Reconfi gure research and evaluation approaches to ensure all work can directly assess movement towards relevant behavioural goals, and systematically capture and share learning



• Establish a system for ongoing national health behaviour mapping

The system should map psycho-graphic factors, knowledge and behaviours and cover all the key Choosing health priority areas. The data collected should include what people ‘know, feel and do’ in relation to their health and well-being, as well as their views about the effectiveness of services and interventions developed to support them. The system should be able to provide reports at least every twelve months and more immediate feedback on the DH led work.

If possible data should be drawn from existing surveys, however, it will be necessary for additional surveys to be commissioned to ensure the full range of data is available. Through the provision of time series data, the survey could be used as a key evaluation and tracking tool for all future social marketing programmes.

• Establish a health-focused knowledge bank and tools

This knowledge bank should be part of, and linked to, the Cabinet Offi ce strategic communication knowledge bank and the new National Public Health Library service. It should:

– capture information on national and local interventions, what has worked, what has not, and what lessons have been learnt

– collect examples of useful tools, learning materials and approaches

– be the national contact point for the European Commission Health Information Platform project.

• Establish a national archive of health programmes and campaigns

Collate, store and make available a library of national and local intervention plans, market research, evaluations and materials. The existing archive from the former Heath Education Authority, which is currently being held in storage by the NICE, and the archives held by the COI, should be incorporated.


• Establish a health-related social marketing research hub

To improve access to all relevant health-related market research available from a variety of sources, including the private, NGO and public sectors. The hub should:

– support programme and campaign leads in developing consumer understanding and insight

– liaise and co-ordinate with the DH Health Insight Unit and other research and development teams within DH

– work with other public health information providers as an integral and component part of the new public health intelligence strategy

– provide specialist social marketing expertise in interpretation and development of health-related market research data

– provide regular bulletins and updates to policy makers, local NHS planners and public health staff about relevant market research data that would help in planning and implementing health-related programmes and campaigns.

• Assess the function of research and development in social marketing programmes and health-related campaigns

Develop proposals for the conduct of future independent evaluations of initiatives. DH proposals should include guidance standards for campaign development research, process evaluations, tracking studies and outcome evaluation. The research and development strategy should also incorporate ongoing reviews of evidence on social marketing effectiveness that captures learning from practice.

• Enhance independent assessment and evaluation of all national programmes and campaigns

Ensure that all work introduces a clear element that is independent, so that those commissioning, developing and delivering work are not the only ones assessing impact and effectiveness. A specifi c research and evaluation protocol should be established and linked with research governance arrangements. The protocol should make clear the distinctions between formative, process and summative evaluation and ensure that summative evaluation is undertaken by an agency or body other than that delivering the programme or campaign.

• Establish a health-related social marketing awards scheme

To provide a vehicle for ministers and senior offi cials to act as champions for programmes and campaigns that demonstrate signifi cant impacts on behaviour. The scheme would also reward and value dynamic, creative and effective work in the fi eld at national and local levels. The awards would stimulate debate and discussion on effective approaches and assist

in the collation of best practice examples. Securing potential commercial sponsorship for this should be explored. Categories of award should be considered and assessed by a multi-professional judging panel against a set of agreed criteria consistent with the social marketing benchmark criteria. Consideration should also be given to establishing social marketing categories in existing national award schemes for people who apply social marketing principles.

• Develop fi eld briefi ng and intelligence gathering Gather intelligence from, and proactively brief

relevant fi eld practitioners about future programmes and campaigns to improve impact and evaluation. Focus investment around existing arrangements, and investigate the best ways of engaging relevant practitioners and champions.

• Commission a joint geo-demographic and psycho-graphic mapping project as part of the DH Public Health Intelligence Strategy

A demonstration project should be commissioned that explores how best to integrate traditional epidemiological and demographic data sets with commercially available market research and psycho-graphic data about people’s beliefs and values. Key partners should include regional public health observatories, the DH Central Health Monitoring Unit and a commercial data mapping company. The project should use all relevant available public and commercially derived data sets to build a new integrated approach to population health profi ling.

• Establish constant live tracking of the impact of national programmes and campaigns

DH should work with other government departments and the COI to develop data capture systems that focus on behavioural impact as well as the awareness and attitudinal data to evaluate success. To facilitate this, all future programme evaluation plans should establish clear and measurable behavioural goals together with mechanisms for collecting and tracking impact data on the success of campaigns. The system should be capable of providing regular tracking data back to those responsible for managing the delivery of the campaign and programme. The data should also be used to inform the development of overall programme evaluation and the wider public health evidence base, and be made available to all public health practitioners.


The recommendationsOrganisational delivery

• Separation of strategic and operational roles, and expert commissioning • Potential contribution of the National Social Marketing Centre.

Organisational delivery

Separation of strategic and operational roles, and expert commissioning If the Department of Health is to maximise the effective use of its resources, it needs to focus its efforts more clearly on an expert commissioning role, and reduce its direct hands-on development and delivery of work.

Government reviews have already established the importance of refocusing government department roles on ‘doing only that which government departments can and should do’ to ensure work is more systematically and consistently commissioned. However, for a number of reasons, this has as yet to be fully realised in practice across the DH. Interpretations of what constitutes in-house work and what is commissioned-out can vary, and therefore bringing greater clarity to this could signifi cantly improve consistency across DH.

There is a strong case to suggest that the DH will continue to struggle to deliver real impacts against its key health targets unless it is able to free very limited staff time and capacity from direct management and delivery of hands-on health related initiatives. Policy and programme work needs to focus much more clearly on supporting ministers and senior offi cials to lead effective policy development, strategic planning and related commissioning of work.

This means that key senior offi cials should be directly tasked with leading work proactively with staff teams to establish exit or transfer strategies to reduce the direct role of offi cials in managing campaign development, implementation, delivery and related evaluation. It needs to be recognised that many existing staff enjoy this aspect of the work. Therefore, the benefi ts of adopting a more strategic expert commissioning role need to be well articulated, and over time staff skills and expertises directly geared towards this. This refocusing needs to be framed around strategic scoping of every national programme and campaign. A standardised process should be used to commission work, and also to monitor and review subsequent development and delivery.

A common approach to commissioning needs to be established, and relationships developed with a mixed-market of potential external organisations and bodies. This should include the COI, NGOs and the commercial sector, which can be readily contracted to manage development, delivery and review of national programme and campaign work.

Some key principles

• Clearer separation of policy, strategy and commissioning from direct development and delivery of initiatives

• Ensure greater clarity and support for effective ministerial oversight, championing and sign off for key national programmes and campaigns

• Introduce standardised planning and monitoring across all national programmes and campaigns

• Prioritisation of health programmes and campaigns based on consistent use of social marketing principles

• Enhance co-ordination mechanisms for cross government health-related programmes

• Ensure every programme and campaign produces written reports and makes these readily available to external practitioners.

DH reframed role • Policy formulation and support to ministers• Strategy development and expert commissioning• Target development, setting and review• Contract management and monitoring• Internal cross-department co-ordination • Cross-government co-ordination.


Organisational delivery

Potential contribution of the National Social Marketing CentreThe Department of Health decided to establish the National Social Marketing Centre (NSM Centre) at the National Consumer Council. This was as a direct response to its commitment in the Choosing health white paper to appoint ‘an independent body’ to support implementation of the National Social Marketing Strategy for Health.

The recommendations that follow have, therefore, been proposed on the basis that DH subsequently agrees a work programme with the NSM Centre to support DH in implementation of the strategy.

It is proposed that the Centre remains located at NCC for at least a further three years to ensure initial work can be capitalised on and the impetus sustained.

During this period it is recommended that work is undertaken to examine the feasibility of transforming the Centre into a not-for-profi t social foundation. Efforts should be made to examine and secure potential additional resources from across other sectors, particularly looking at what the commercial and NGO sectors could potentially contribute to enhance the centre’s resource and capacity base.

The following objectives are based on the review recommendations, and identify how the NSM Centre could support the strategy:


Objectives (proposed)

1. Develop social marketing-related capacity, skills and a portfolio of related resources

2. Support DH in integrating social marketing into all national programmes and campaigns, and in co-ordinating health-related activities

3. Provide a central resource for capturing information, intelligence and learning on effective social marketing-related activity

4. Develop a related research programme

5. Support cross-sector partnership working and assist development of co-delivery.


The recommendationsWhat success should look like: National three-year review checklist

The success criteria checklist overleaf has been framed with particular consideration of the Department of Health’s national role in leading and championing effective approaches to health improvement work. Many of the checklist items can also be readily applied to assess integration of social marketing at local and regional levels.

During the review, a number of fi eld practitioners expressed the view that while they valued the lead that DH was taking to realise the potential of social marketing, they nevertheless had some doubts about whether this leadership would be sustained over

time. There was a recognition that a busy policy and practice agenda can mean that initial good intentions could easily be overtaken by the impact of subsequent events, and the original drive and energy behind it lost or dissipated.

Therefore the following three-year review checklist has been developed to help assess the extent to which the Department of Health’s commitment to integrate social marketing into its work is delivered and sustained over time.


The recommendationsNational three-year review checklist

1: A National Social Marketing Strategy for Health established with:

• a clear aim and set of objectives guiding its development

• internal and external practitioners briefed and fully aware.

2: Social marketing formally integrated into all national health-related

programmes and campaigns. Specifi cally:

• Social marketing benchmark criteria being actively used and applied

as part of the scoping and development process

• standard planning system in place across all national programmes

and campaigns

• scoping reports available for all national programmes and campaigns

and easily available to fi eld stakeholders on DH and NSM Centre

websites.

3: National targeted training and skills development programme in

place with:

• all relevant DH policy, programme, communications and research staff

have been through a basic phase 1 training programme. Selected key

staff have taken a more in-depth phase 2 training programme

• fi eld practitioners across different sectors, including public health,

health promotion and health communications, have access to tailored

training events.

4: Enhanced and integrated social marketing related research in

place that includes:

• national research hub collating and synthesising social marketing-

related research and learning from multiple sources

• national psycho-graphic tracking survey in place that is regularly used

by national and local practitioners

• consumer market research initiative linking and sharing

understanding, intelligence, and consumer insights from different

national programmes and campaigns.

5: Programme in place to further capture learning and develop the

evidence-base for effective social marketing that includes:

• national archive in place to capture programme and campaign plans,

information and evaluation

• all national programmes and campaigns have an active publication

strategies in place, and proactive encouragement to publish work in

professional and academic publications

• key co-ordination mechanisms in place to share information and learn

from development across work streams that includes:

– internal DH social marketing forum

– cross-government public campaigns group.

6: Enhanced range of multi-sector partnerships in place that

contributes directly to national programmes and campaigns

and includes:

• proactive strategy in place, supported by clear ethical guidelines

for engagement with commercial sector

• enhanced engagement with non-government and voluntary

community sector.

Success criteria – checklist Yes/no How otherwise

addressed


Social marketing is a powerful and adaptable approach for achieving and sustaining positive behaviours. The evidence is increasingly clear that by applying its concepts and principles systematically, the impact and effectiveness of interventions and related services can be signifi cantly improved.

Defi ning social marketing Based on the NSM Centre review of the historical development of social marketing defi nitions, the following defi nitions have been developed.

A brief historySocial marketing was fi rst coined as a term in the early 1970’s, and has been developed and expanded upon since then. It draws from both commercial marketing, as well as many years of experience of international social marketing in the public, not-for-profi t and non-governmental sectors. It also builds on health and social reform campaign-related work that has been used to reach and engage different audiences and communities within the UK for many years. There is a growing evidence-base for social marketing.

Appendices

Social marketing is:“the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques, to achieve specifi c behavioural goals, for a social or public good”

Health-related social marketing is:“the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques, to achieve specifi c behavioural goals, to improve health and reduce health inequalities”


Key concepts and principles The social marketing customer triangle below highlights a number of core concepts and principles of social marketing.

‘customer triangle’ nsmc © 2006

1: Customer or consumer placed at the centreSocial marketing begins and ends with a focus on the individual within their social context. The main concern is to ensure all interventions are based around and directly respond to the needs and wants of the person, rather than the person having to fi t around the needs of the service or intervention. Social marketing always starts with seeking to understand ‘where the person is at now’ rather than ‘where someone might think they are or should be’. This helps avoid ‘top-down’ approaches and the tendency to start crafting messages or interventions, before a real understanding of the issue is reached. Example: A smoking cessation programme for pregnant women in Sunderland [email protected]

2: Clear ‘behavioural goals’Social marketing is driven by a concern to achieve measurable impacts on what people actually do, not just their knowledge, awareness or beliefs about an issue. Establishing ‘behavioural goals’ requires going beyond the traditional focus on ‘behaviour change’ to recognise the dynamic nature of behaviour within a whole population. It looks at both the positive

behaviour andbehavioural goals

CONSUMER

‘insight’

‘exchange’

‘com

petit

ion’

audiencesegmentation

intervention and marketing mix

Appendix AUnderstanding and realising the potential of social marketing


and the problematic behaviours to understand the relationship between them and looks to identify patterns and trends over time and what infl uences these. A behavioural goals approach also describes the aim of an intervention in terms of specifi c behaviours, and considers manageable behavioural steps towards a main behavioural goal. Example: ‘Food Dudes’, a healthy eating programme. www.fooddudes.co.uk

3: Developing ‘insight’ Social marketing is driven by ‘actionable insights’ that are able to provide a practical steer for the selection and development of interventions. To develop such insight means moving beyond traditional information and intelligence (e.g. demographic or epidemiological data) to looking much more closely at why people behave in the way that they do. Consideration is given to the possible infl uences and infl uencers on behaviour, and specifi cally what people think, feel, and believe. Importance is placed on considering those things within and outside an individuals control.Example: A mouth and bowel cancer initiative encouraging early attendance at the NHS. www.woscap.co.uk

4: ‘The exchange’ Social marketing puts a strong emphasis on understanding what is to be ‘offered’ to the intended audience, based upon what they value and consider important (e.g. short-term v long-term benefi ts). It also requires an appreciation of the ‘full cost’ to the audience of accepting the offer, which may include: money, time, effort, social consequences, etc. The aim is to maximise the potential ‘offer’ and its value to the audience, while minimising all the ‘costs’ of adopting, maintaining or changing a particular behaviour. This involves considering ways to increase incentives and remove barriers to the positive behaviour, while doing the opposite for the negative or problematic behaviour.Example: ‘Think!’, a national road safety campaign. www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk

5: ‘The competition’ Social marketing uses the concept of ‘competition’

to examine all the factors that compete for people’s attention and willingness or ability to adopt a desired behaviour. It looks at both external and internal competition. • External competition can include those directly

promoting potentially negative behaviours but can also include other potentially positive infl uences that might be seeking to infl uence the same audience.

• Internal competition includes the power of pleasure, enjoyment, risk taking, habit and addiction that can directly infl uence a person’s behaviour.

Example: ‘Truth’, a youth-focused anti-tobacco campaign in the U.S. www.protectthetruth.org

6: Segmentation Social marketing uses a developed ‘segmentation’ approach. This goes beyond traditional ‘targeting’ approaches that may focus on demographic characteristics or epidemiological data, by considering alternative ways that people can be understood and profi led. In particular it looks at how different people are responding to an issue, what moves and motivates them. This is often referred to as ‘psycho-graphic’ research. It ensures interventions can be tailored to people’s different needs. Example: An illicit drugs programme in Australia. www.drugs.health.gov.au

7. ‘Intervention mix’ and ‘marketing mix’ Social marketing recognises that in any given situation there are a range of intervention options or approaches that could be used to achieve a particular goal. It focuses on ensuring a deep understanding and insight into the customer, is used to directly inform the identifi cation and selection of appropriate intervention methods and approaches. As single interventions are generally less effective than multi-interventions the issue is also to consider the relative balance or mix between interventions or approaches selected. Where this is done at the strategic level it is commonly referred to as the ‘intervention mix’ while at the level of a dedicated social marketing intervention the term ‘marketing mix’ is more common. Example: A national tobacco control campaign in England. www.givingupsmoking.co.uk

Understanding and realising the potential of social marketing


POLICY

STRATEGY

IMPLEMENTATION

Policy development and scopingInformed by social marketing ‘insights’eg. citizen/customer/customer insight

Strategic intervention scopingInforming selection of interventions to achieve goals As an intervention option in its own right, alongside others, ie: a component of the intervention mix

Applied as a planned process at different levels• Social Marketing Initiative – shorter term• Social Marketing Campaign – medium term• Social Marketing Programme – longer term

Total process planning model

Undertaking and applying social marketing approach as a dedicated intervention, systematically planned and staged to achieve specifi c behavioural goals

Scope Develop Implement Evaluate Follow-up

How to approach social marketing Social marketing can be considered in two key ways, strategically and operationally:

Strategic Social MarketingWhere social marketing concepts and principles can be used to inform and enhance strategic discussions, and guide policy development and intervention option identifi cation.

Operational Social Marketing Where social marketing is applied as a process and worked through systematically to achieve specifi c behavioural goals. The total process planning model below sets out such a basic planning approach.

Also able to directly assist service design, development and delivery

Operational social marketing S

trat

egic

so

cial

mar

keti

ng

Social Marketing Programme Social Marketing Campaign Social Marketing Initiative

Used to refer to a longer term Commonly consisting of a range Used to refer to a time specifi cplanned programme of work or cluster of activities targeted intervention

Typically staged Typically staged Typically undertaken over 3 to 10+ years over 1 to 3 years within 1 year


Social marketing benchmark criteria

• Intervention clearly seeks to impact on behaviour, whether individuals or groups, relevant to a social or public good

• A broad inclusive approach to behavioural goals adopted that cover establishing, maintaining, and where necessary, changing relevant behaviours

• Specifi c measurable behavioural goals and related indicators have been established to guide all development work and are phased in a realistic way over time. This can include addressing knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, but only where these can be clearly linked to achieving a specifi c behavioural goal.

• Formative market research used to identify audience characteristics and needs• Range of different research and data sources used to inform development• Pre-testing is integrated into development and used to test out with relevant

audiences all insight and developing methods.

• Approach based on identifying and developing actionable insights using considered judgement, rather than simply generating more data and intelligence

• Focus clearly on gaining a deep understanding and insight into what moves and motivates the consumer/citizen.

• Actively assess and draw from theory across different disciplines and professions - ie. it does not seek to apply the same theory or set of theories to every context, but focuses on identifying those that offer the greatest potential for understanding the infl uences on behaviour

• Theory directly used to inform selection and development of an appropriate intervention.

• Moves beyond simple demographic or epidemiological targeting• Different segmentation options and variables are actively considered when

identifying the appropriate target audience. Particular focus on understanding what people think and feel about issues using psycho-graphic data

• Interventions directly tailored to particular audience segments.

• Uses a range of methods and approaches to establish appropriate marketing mix• Methods and approaches developed taking full account of any other interventions

in order to achieve synergy and enhance the overall impact.

• Clear analysis of the full costs to the consumer in achieving the proposed benefi t• Incentives and barriers are considered and addressed for positive, negative or

problematic behaviour • Attention is given to maximising tangible and intangible benefi ts for adopting,

sustaining or changing a behaviour.

• Specifi c consideration of both internal and external competition• Active consideration is given to the personal appeal of competing behaviours

and external factors promoting or reinforcing potentially negative or problematic behaviour

• Active consideration is given to the potential impact of other positive interventions that could compete for the attention of the audience.

• Strategies employed to help address and minimise such competition.

Benchmark Explanation

1. Behavioural goals

2. Consumer research and pre-testing

3. Insight driven

4. Theory-based and informed

5. Segmentation and targeting

6. Marketing mix

7. Exchange

8. Competition

French, Blair-Stevens (2006) adapted from original benchmark criteria developed by Andreasen (2001)


Appendix BNational Social Marketing Centre – governance, aims and objectives

DH wider team

National Social Marketing Associates Group

Monthly Operational Steering Group

Quarterly Steering Group

Quarterly Service Level Agreement Review Group

National Consumer Council Board

Dept of HealthChoosing Health Governance

National Social Marketing Network

National Social Marketing Centre team

StakeholdersPublic, private and NGO sectors

Governance arrangements


Current aim to: • help realise the full potential of effective social marketing in contributing to national and local efforts to

improve health and reduce health inequalities.

Current objectives to: • undertake and produce an independent national review report (for 2006) Undertake relevant research (see below) and develop proposals for the fi rst National Social Marketing

Strategy for Health and a set of recommendations for ways to enhance the impact and effectiveness of activity

• provide direct social marketing support, guidance and related skills development Focus on key DH Choosing health work programmes and support across the wider public health system • develop a practical social marketing resources portfolio Increase understanding of social marketing and support effective planning, development, and evaluation.

Research programme objectives to:• review the evidence base for social marketing in a number of key areas• assess current government department practices and effectiveness in delivering health-related interventions• understand stakeholder perceptions of social marketing – past and present• compile a report on key behavioural trends and progress towards government targets• assess the cost to society of preventable ill-health and assess social marketing’s contribution to reducing

that cost• understand and map national capacity to deliver social marketing• understand and map the key market and social research resources currently available to social marketeers.


Appendix CSummary of organisations that have helped inform the reviewAssociation of Healthcare CommunicatorsAudit Commission Big Lottery Fund Birmingham University Bradford PCTBarnsley PCTBolton PCTBrighton and Hove City PCTCentral England University Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Chartered Institute of Marketing Cloudline Company Chemists’ AssociationCroydon Council De Montfort University Demos Derby City Council Design CouncilDeveloping Patient PartnershipsDiva CreativeDr Foster IntelligenceDudley PCTsDunhumbyEast Devon PCTEast Elmbridge and Mid Surrey PCTEngine Group Environment Agency Faculty of Public Health Fishburn Hedges: communications consultancy Food Advertising Unit Food & Drink Federation Food Ethics Council Foresight Programme (DTI) FSA – Food Standards AgencyForster Company GFK NOPGreater London Authority Glazer Ltd Government Offi ce for London Government Offi ce for Yorkshire and The Humber Hall & Partners Hammersmith & Fulham PCTHeadshift Ltd Health and Social Care Information Centre Healthcare Commission Health First (London) Heart of Mersey Health Protection AgencyImprovement & Development Agency IFF Research Institute of Social Marketing Institute for Public Policy Research Islington PCTJudge Business School Kent County CouncilKing’s Fund Kirklees County Council

Kraft Foods UK LtdKTBPR (PR company)Knowsley PCTLancaster University Live Work NetworkLiverpool PCTsLocal Government Association London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine MEDACTMomentaNational Audit Offi ce National Foundation for Educational Research National Heart Forum Newham PCT New Statesman Nuffi eld Institute North East Public Health Observatory National NGO PHorum (Public Health Forum) Newcastle University Newcastle PCTNICE – National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence North Tees PCTNottingham City CouncilOgilvy Public RelationsThe Open UniversityOxford Strategic MarketingPA ConsultingPenn Schoen Berlande (London)Pharmacy HealthLink Porter Novelli Portsmouth City Council Price Waterhouse Coopers PRU HealthRAF – Royal Air ForceRoyal College of General PractitionersRoyal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology Royal Institute for Public Health Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain Sheffi eld PCTsSocial Marketing PracticeLondon South Bank University Staffordshire County Council Stoke-on-Trent PCT The Stroke Association Surrey University 3 Monkeys PRThink Public LtdTNS (World Food Panel)UKPHA – UK Public Health Association UnileverUniversity of Brunel University of East Anglia University of NorthumbriaUniversity of Stirling VielifeVolterra

Social marketing

to achieve a‘social good’behavioural goals

systematicapplication

marketingconcepts and

techniques

Social marketing is:“the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques to achieve specifi c behavioural goals, for a social or public good”

Health-related social marketing is: “the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques, to achieve specifi c behavioural goals to improve heath and reduce health inequalities”


Further details on social marketing are included in Appendix A and available on our website www.nsms.org.uk

Water UKWorld Cancer Fund Worth MediaYoung Scot, National Grid for Learning Scotland

Government departments DH – Health HMT – Treasury CO – Cabinet Offi ce PMDU – Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit COI – Central Offi ce of Information DCMS – Culture, Media Sport DfID – International Development DfES – Education & skills DfT – Transport DEFRA – Environment, Food & Rural Affairs HO – Home Offi ce DTI – Trade & Industry

International organisations World Health Organization – Diet and Healthy Living StrategyEuropean CommissionEuropean UnionEuroHealthNetBureau Européen des Union de Consommateurs Health Promotion SwitzerlandCurtin University of Technology, Australia Edith Cowan University, Perth, AustraliaCentre of Excellence for Public Sector Marketing, Canada Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, Canada University of Lethbridge, Calgary, CanadaHealth Sponsorship Council, New Zealand Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA Washington University, USA School of Business, Georgetown University, USA Ogilvy Public Relations, USA National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, USA American Medical Informatics Association, USA Social Marketing Services Inc, USA School of Public Health, University of Texas, USA Porter Novelli, USA School of Business, University of Wisconsin, USA Sutton Group, USA National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute, USA Women’s Heart Health Education Initiative, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, USA Population Services International, USA Healthy Weight /Nutrition Program, NC Dept of Health & Human Services, USAPhysician Offi ce Quality Initiatives, Virginia Health Quality Center, USA Developing VCU School of Public Health, USA Florida Prevention Research Center, University of South Florida, USA

Appendix DAbbreviations

BLF Big Lottery Fund

COI Central Offi ce of Information CDC Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (US)

DEFRA Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

DH Department of HealthDfID Department for International

Development

FSA Food Standards Agency

GDP Gross domestic product

HDA Health Development Agency HEA Health Education AuthorityHEC Health Education Council

NHS National Health ServiceNICE National Institute for Health and Clinical

ExcellenceNGO Non-governmental organisationNSMC National Social Marketing Centre

PCT Primary care trustPSA Public service agreement

SHA Strategic health authority



Independent review, fi ndings and recommendations

Summary

20 Grosvenor GardensLondon SW1W 0DH

Telephone 020 7730 3469Facsimile 020 7730 0191

www.ncc.org.ukwww.nsms.org.uk

June 2006National Social Marketing CentreEmail [email protected] 020 7881 3045ISBN 1 899581 89 8

It’s ou

r health

! Realising the potential of effective social m

arketing

it's our health!

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